Durham probe sets basis for reforms at FBI, House Intel leaders say

House Intelligence leaders who met with special counsel John Durham said his review of the FBI’s handling of the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign would serve as a basis for laying down reforms to an agency whose work must withstand scrutiny.

Durham uncovered little new information in his report capping his nearly four-year investigation, but he documented multiple missteps taken by the FBI as they probed the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia during the 2016 presidential election, offering a scathing assessment of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

Appearing in tandem after the closed-door session, both Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and Ranking Member Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said the FBI was in need of reform — which Durham’s impressions of the agency would help guide — when it comes to high stakes investigations of political candidates.

“The committee really was focused on — particularly on something so sensitive as an investigation that pertains to political candidates — how can we make sure that the behavior of the investigative authorities, in this case the FBI, is beyond reproach,” Himes said.

He pointed to Crossfire Hurricane as well as then-FBI Director Jim Comey’s decision to release information about the investigation into then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton days before the election. 

“We have to learn from the mistakes made in these investigations to make sure that Americans can have confidence in both the prosecutorial power of the federal government and in their elections.”

While Durham’s report didn’t lay out any concrete reforms for the bureau, the FBI contends it has taken numerous reforms amid backlash over its handling of the Trump investigation.

That includes more oversight and limitations for both foreign and domestic wiretapping, a nod to a lack of due diligence in the FBI’s spying on Trump campaign aide Carter Page. 

“The conduct in 2016 and 2017 that Special Counsel Durham examined was the reason that current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time. Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented,” the FBI said when Durham’s report was released last month.

But Turner said the reforms don’t go far enough.

“I don’t think anybody on our committee is completely satisfied with the reforms that the FBI has undertaken,” Turner said. 

“It’s certainly a great start. And they are responding to some of the issues and problems that are identified in the Durham report and some of the issues that and angst that members of Congress have themselves. But I think our goal in reforms probably go beyond that.” 

The House Intelligence Committee is weighing a series of reforms, including on the warrantless wiretapping authority the FBI and other intelligence agencies have for foreign nationals overseas. 

But both men agreed the bureau needs additional guardrails.

“He gave us the impression that some of the misconduct is individualized, that there were bad people doing bad things. But then some of it is systemic. And some of it is where we need changes so that there’s higher reviews, there’s higher requirements for this to ever happen again. And he did share those with us. And I do think that that gives us an opportunity,” Turner said.

Durham determined the FBI had little to go on in opening its investigation into the Trump campaign.  

“The objective facts show that the FBI’s handling of important aspects of the Crossfire Hurricane matter were seriously deficient,” Durham wrote in the 305-page report, arguing that the bureau relied on “raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence.”

Himes said Durham did not find evidence that the bureau was politicized but stressed the bureau has a long way to go in recovering its reputation.

“He found confirmation bias, which is bad, but that’s just we’re moving in a direction and we’re going to keep moving maybe without being reflective enough. That’s different than saying it was politicized,” he said.

“We have found collectively, that culturally and procedurally, the FBI has a lot of work to do.”

The bipartisan front displayed by the House Intel leaders is all but certain to stand in contrast to Durham’s slated appearance before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning, the chief panel for voicing the GOP’s distrust of the FBI.

“I am glad that we went first,” Turner said.

“Because I think that having Mr. Durham in this environment, allowed him to be very forthcoming, and very sharing of his thoughts and ideas. Certainly, tomorrow has a different purpose.”

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), both one of Trump’s top defenders and one of the Justice Department’s top critics, has repeatedly complained that the FBI is “rotted at its core.

“I will tell you that on both sides, there was an attempt to get at the truth, rather than what I fear you might see tomorrow, which is an attempt to maybe…angle the truth a little bit in the service of one’s political agenda,” Himes said.

The timing of Durham’s appearances before Congress, planned weeks ago, comes on the heels of an announcement from the U.S. attorney in Delaware that it reached a plea agreement with Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son and a proxy for attacks on the president.

It’s a fortuitous moment for Republicans who have pointed to the Biden case as they argue Trump has been unfairly targeted by the Justice Department.

Biden on Monday entered a plea agreement on two counts of willful failure to pay federal income taxes in both 2017 and 2018. In a separate agreement, he agreed to enter a pretrial diversion program stemming from lying about drug use as he purchased a weapon.

Trump is facing charges in New York related to concealing a hush money payment to an adult film star as well as in federal court in Florida stemming from retaining more than 300 classified records from his presidency. He has pleaded not guilty.

Durham was appointed in 2019 by then-Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate the origins of the FBI probe, a move that former President Trump celebrated. Trump himself repeatedly raised expectations for the Durham probe, suggesting it would unveil the “crime of the century.”

Though Durham’s investigation spurred multiple indictments, it scored limited results in court. Two individuals — Igor Danchenko and Michael Sussmann — were charged with lying to the FBI and found not guilty, and a third individual pleaded guilty to doctoring an email about a surveillance warrant.

Updated: 7:42 p.m. ET